This is a wonderful time of rapid changes and exciting new adventures! In May I graduated from college and have already had ten days of choir tour with the magnificent Occidental College Glee Club in Boston, Massachusetts and the Cape Cod, completed a ten day (80 hours) Wilderness First Responder course and a week of staff training for my summer job that begins in two weeks: taking a group of thirteen high schoolers on a 25-day trip to Morocco and Spain. This all leads into a year of music studies at Ingesund Folkhögskola in a small town in the region of Värmland in Sweden. I can’t believe I pulled off such a sweet line up! I have experienced waves of reality checks, however, entering the “real world,” which really just means a place where, among other things that are different than a college campus, most people do not speak the language of Occidental College. I am finding myself in spheres where I cannot easily access the conversations about race, gender, class, sexuality, and music in the same way that I did on a college campus, especially one such as Oxy. What I really mean is that for the first time I am having to find ways to explain (or refrain from explaining) how I think in ways that are not already laid out by the conversations already in place on campus. I find myself wondering how I will stay connected to the challenges that my course work, fellow students, and professors (mainly in Sociology and Critical Theories and Social Justice) presented me in critically questioning this world and the way I (and others) live my life in it. It makes me thankful for the friendships I have made through college that will continue to challenge and push this world, our ideas of how it works, and where our energies should be focused. I had a wonderful conversation with my sister today about the importance of challenging oneself to create instead of letting being critical of the things that are not working suck out all of our energy. I am thankful for her every day, especially in these times when her understanding means so much to me.

It is funny that most of my posts this far somehow relate back to Sweden, and most are about music. This is a big reason why I wanted to go back to Sweden: to reconnect with my other half, be with family and good old friends, and also to enter the magical music scene to see what emerges out of me and from the opportunities that arise. I look forward to buckling down and focusing on music, as well as being surrounded by other musicians in such an intimate environment. I am so excited for what I am going to learn from all of them! But first, Morocco and Spain plus a mountain of leadership experience to come!

Here’s another video from the choir tour that topped off my college experience in the best way possible: singing, a loving family of 40 awesome people who also love to sing, and new places I have never been before. This piece is called The Sounding Sea and we performed it in a church in the hometown of one of the choir members in Sherborn, Mass.